Strand handling apparatus



June 1938. s. E. BRILLHART I STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Filed June 19, 1935 INVENTOR 5.. E. BR/LLHART A TTORNEV Patented June 7, 1938 UNITED STATES PATNT ()FFHCE STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Application June 19, 1935, Serial No. 27,381

3 Claims.

This invention relates to strand handling apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for coating strands with soft, hardenable material such as vulcanizable compounds, enamels having 5 a volatile solvent, and the like, which is hardened after being applied to the strand, by a subsequent treatment.

In the manufacture of coated strands and in particular in insulating wire for electrical conductors with rubber compounds, the strand may be passed through a coating means, such as an extrusion device, to be coated with a hardenable material, such as a vulcanizable mixture containing rubber, which is subsequently hardened, as by vulcanizing in a heated chamber, after which the strand may be taken up on a reel for storage or further use. The freshly coated strand emerging from the coating apparatus comprises a central strand or core of relatively high tensile strength and frequently of relatively great hardness, such as a copper wire, having a coating which may beseveral times as thick as the core and is relatively soft, yielding and of little tensile strength. It is sometimes a difficult matter to handle the newly coated strand until the coating is hardened in a manner and by means which will not afiect it damagingly, either by marring the coating itself or by causing or allowing the core to become displaced fromthe axis of. the combination.

One object of .the present invention is to provide an apparatus for coating strands with .hardenable'material and particularly for insulating electric wires with vulcanizable compounds and subsequently hardening or vulcanizing the coating without harmfully affecting the coating itself or its relation to the core which it covers.

One embodiment of the invention contemplates an apparatus comprising an extrusion press for applying a coating of vulcanizable compound on a wire and a vulcanizing oven to vulcanize the coating so constructed and combined that the coated wire passes directly from the extrusion press into the oven and has no support except its own core Wire from the point of leaving the die of the extrusion press until it has been hardened by vulcanization before touching and being supported by the exit sealing device of the oven, the coated wire hanging in a free catenary curve from the die to the seal.

Other objects and features of the invention will clearly appear from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which the single figure is a diagrammatic representation of a wire insulating apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention.

In the embodiment of the invention herein disclosed an apparatus for insulating electrical conductor Wirev with vulcanizable material such as a compound containing rubber, comprises a wire supply device generally indicated at I8, a tension control device generally indicated at 2|], an extrusion coating device generally indicated at 38, a vulcanizing chamber 40, a cooling cham- .10 ber 50, a capstan and drive 68, and. a take-up device 1!). v

.The supply means It may be of any approved construction comprising stationary means H to interchangeably support a supply reel M on rotatable stub shafts l2 and Hi journalled in the support H, and a delivery sheave l5.

A pair of vertical parallel spaced guide supports 2|, 2| may be mounted on the support for the tension control means 23. These supports are. 2,0 vertically slotted to receive and confine a sheave 22 freely vertically movable in the slots and so held against displacement horizontally transversely. The axle of this sheave is freely vertically movable between the supports 2|, 2| but it 25 and the sheave are held by them against horizontal displacement longitudinally of the machine. To this end this axle is preferably journalled in a yoke 23 having vertical arms sliding between the supports. The lower transverse..3 0 member of this yoke bears against the upper end of a compression spring 26 whose lower end bears against a brake shoe 25 acting on the stub shaft l2. A transverse stationary top member secured to the supports 2|, 2| has two sheaves-35 26, 2S journalled therein as shown. A compression spring 2'! bears at its lower end against the top of the yoke 23 and at its upper end against a block 28 slidable between the supports-2|, 2| and controlled by an adjustment screw 29.

The extrusion press 38 may be of any approved construction such for example as is illustrated and described in U. S. Patent 1,823,885 issued September 22, 1931, modified as hcreinafter described. This modification consists in so mount-Q45 ing the press or its exit head as to be adjustably tiltable to bring the exit direction of. the coated wire from the head below the horizontal by any desired angular amount as required in any individual case. This. may be done by mountinggto the press as a Whole in a cradle 3| which is in turn mounted to be rotatable in a stationary support 32. A circular internally toothed gear 33 on the support coacting with a pinion 34 provided with a handle 35 and mounted on the press Will.

'38 and vertically slotted to match the several positions of the bore 39. The exit end of the chamber is provided with an appropriately constructed sealing device generally indicated at 4| end having a sealing member 44, a suitable construction for this device being that described in U. S. Patent 1,885,080, issued October 25, 1932, modified by having the bores of the members 30 and 36 therein widened to permit a wire to pass through at an angle to their common axis. The chamber may also be appropriately provided with an inlet 42 and a suitably, trapped outlet 43 for some vulcanizing agent such 'as hot air or steam.

The cooling chamber'50 may be simply, a box provided with a' combined air inlet and strand exit 5| and an air exhaust duct 52 connected to some suitable exhaust device not shown. For convenience in illustration the apparatus is shown doubled back on itself at this point, the chamber 50 having a sheave 53 mounted therein to reverse the direction of the strand.

The capstan 60 may be of any appropriate construction, there being many such. It sufiices here to say that it has a rotatable barrel 6| around 'which the strand passes one or more times and which is driven by gearing 62, 63 as indicated from a motor 64 which may also drive the take up reel H through gearing 12. c

In operation a strand of wire A to be insulated is drawn from the supply reel 14 and passes over the delivery sheave I5, over the first sheave 26, a

under the sheave 22, over-the second sheave 26, behind the capstan 60, over the sheave 36 and through the extrusion head 3! of the press 30. From the head 31 the strand passes freely and untouched and unsupported through the bore 39 and the matching slot in the end wall of the oven 40, through the chamber 40 and its seal 44 by which latter it is touched and supported for the first time since leaving the extrusion head 31.

The strand then passes around the sheave 53, out

through the exit 5| and on to the capstan barrel 6| 'It passes one or more times, as necessary, around the barrel 6| and thence to the take-up reel H to be wound thereon.

In passing through the extrusion head 3: the

wire receives'a substantially concentric uniformly thick coating of relatively soft and plastic vulcanizable material such as'is familiar to the art of insulating wires, usually containing rubber or' the like. In the chamber 40 this coating is gradually converted into a relatively tough, resilient and resistant sheath by vulcanization as for examplerby steam led in through the inlet 42. From beginning to end of the chamber, 1. e., from the head 31 to the seal 44 the strand hangs in a catenary curve, supported only by its'core, the

shape and sag of the curve depending only on the weight per unit length of the coated strand and on the longitudinal tension imposed on the strand by the capstan at one side and the devices 30 and'2ll at the other side. These last two tend On the exit side of the so that the sag will not at to work in opposition as the extruding press tends to push the strand along while the tension device 20 holds it back. By the time the covered strand reaches the seal 44 and passes thence over the sheave 53, the vulcanization of the coating is 5 completed. 7

Since the coated strand thus is notbrought 1 into contact with anything except the vulcanizing atmosphere in the chamber 40 from the time the coating is applied until it is hardened there 10 can be no marring of the coating by any external influence. Since the strand is allowed to sag through the chamber, no undue tensile stress is put on the core strand in the effort to keep it straight, or nearly so, over the relatively long 5 relatively loosely, yielding naturally to gravitational forces; thereiis less strain within the coat-v ing while still soft tending to make; itsag on the core and thus become unsymmetrical thereon under its own weight;

It is found in practice that insulated Wires pro duced in this manner have more homogeneous coatings which ensheathe the core more symmetrically and whichare produced with fewer flaws and interruptions than heretofore. It is however important that the sag in the chamber 40 be care- L fully adjusted and controlled to correspond to the relations between weight per unit length of the core, weight per unit length of coating thereon, initial softness of coating compound, and'other factors involved, all of which will vary in indig Thus a thick, relatively hard core,

vidual cases. e. g., of bronze wire, with a relatively thin coating applied thereto, could be run through the chamber 48, relatively rapidly, under high tension and with little sag; while if the core were a fine wire of pure'soft copper and the coating were relatively thick and heavy, the strand would have to move more slowly to effect complete vulcanization, and would have to be underbmuch lower tension to avoid both stretching of the core and displacement of the, soft coating on the core. Hence in the latter case, the coated strand must hang in a much'deeper, more sagging catenary 7 through the chamber.

The sag of the catenary is controlled by ad-L justment of the device 20 and also entails ad-. justment of the extrusion head 30 to permit the covered strand to leave the extrusion head in the direction ofv the initial tangent to the catenary,

within the coating.

The embodiment of the invention herein dis- 7 closed'is illustrative onlyand may be widely modified and departed from in manyways without departing from the spirit and scope of the inven-cfio tionas pointed out in and limited onlyby the appended claims. I

7 What is claimed is: Q

1. In anapparatus for coating a strand with a soft hardenable material, a treating chamber for hardening material applied to the strand, a material applying means havinga passage. there-. thru, and means for; moving the strand thru said a passage to coat the same and for maintaining the coated strand in a free-hanging catenarywhile being treated in said chamber, said material applying means being positioned adjacent one end of the catenary and having the passage therethru positioned in alignment with said catena ry A V 4.. g V

once displace the corn-.55

2. In an apparatus for insulating wire, a vulcanizing chamber, means having a passage therethru for applying a vulcanizable insulating material to the wire communicating directly with the vulcanizing chamber, and means for moving the wire thru said passage to coat the same and for maintaining the coated wire in a free-hanglng catenary while the coating is being vulcanized in said chamber, said means for applying the insulating material being positioned adjacent one end of the catenary and having the passage therethru in alignment with said catenary.

3. In an apparatus for coating a strand with a soft hardenable material, a treating chamber for hardening material applied to the strand, 2. material applying means having a passage therethru, means for moving the strand thru said passage to coat the same and for maintaining the coated strand in a free-hanging catenary while being treated in said chamber, said material applying means being positioned adjacent one end of the catenary and having the passage therethru positioned in alignment with said catenary, and means for adjusting the material applying means to keep said passage in alignment with differently hanging catenaries.

SAMUEL E. BRILLHART. 

